In the first of two podcasts, Garry Taylor chats with Richard Hayes, the son of Aston Martin Chairman Walter Hayes, about his recollections of Walter, the legacy he left behind with Aston Martin, Ford and elsewhere.
Richard refers to and discusses letters to Walter, and comments about him, from Ian Callum, Colin Chapman, Sir Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi, Henry Ford II, the Duke of Richmond, Max Mosley and Evelyn Waugh.
We discuss his characteristics, personal and professional, that took him first to being the youngest editor of a national newspaper, Fleet Street’s “Sunday Dispatch”, to Director of Public Affairs at Ford of Britain and later Vice Chairman of Ford of Europe. It was his recommendation to Henry Ford II that Ford buy Aston Martin, which lead to the DB7, and Walter, following his retirement from Ford, unexpectedly finding himself the Chairman of AML. Later he was appointed the first Chairman of the Aston Martin Heritage Trust.
Part two will be available next week.
